Why Coaching your Employees Makes a BIG DIFFERENCE
Cathie Leimbach • July 5, 2021
You may know that coaching your employees on an ongoing basis will increase their performance, reduce the line of people outside your office door, and reinforce training. Here is an interesting statistic – after employees receive training, they only implement about 10% of what is learned without ongoing follow-up and coaching.
Effective coaching of your employees will result in more confident, better trained, and more engaged employees. Coaching, rather than telling, creates future capacity in your employees. Here are some of the benefits:
- Employees are encouraged to succeed in their roles, surpass their goals, and sometimes are surprised at how much more effective they have become.
- It increases engagement – employees feel heard and that their contribution is valued.
- Your employees are coached to find solutions and answers themselves, leading to solid leadership skills and good behaviors.
- Employees become more motivated.
- Morale is increased throughout teams as each employee is equipped with more skills and confidence.
There are challenges for Managers wanting to coach rather than instruct. Ongoing coaching of your team will empower them to be more effective, creative, and confident. This helps your bottom line. Like all skills, developing coaching skills requires training and reinforcement from the organization. The reasons why it is challenging to implement coaching include:
- Managers lack knowledge about how to do it effectively.
- It feels time-consuming.
- Managers are often promoted based on technical skills, and coaching can feel awkward to them.
There is an accessible 12 step format to effective ongoing employee coaching:
- Give employees regular, frequent feedback. Employees crave constructive feedback from their managers. Look at our previous articles on providing positive and corrective feedback.
- Create a culture of feedback within your team. Encourage employees to provide feedback to each other and you.
- Push your employees by motivating them to get out of their comfort zone and perform to their potential. Their abilities and confidence will grow.
- Be open to employee ideas. We have previously talked about asking open-ended questions. When employees feel their opinion is respected and valued, they are more likely to be engaged and push harder.
- Encourage employees to learn from others. Connecting with their peers opens new possibilities and creates a more connected team. Encourage employees to learn from others.
- Ask employees for their opinions. This creates an open dialogue, encourages employee input, and provides an opportunity to coach.
- Build confidence. Confident employees achieve goals. Look for ways to coach each employee to set reasonable goals and recognize them for their strong performance and extra effort.
- Don’t do their work for them. If an assignment is going sideways, it is tempting to take it into your own hands and complete it. Instead, coach them on how to handle the situation by using open-ended questions to help them navigate through possible solutions to come to the best outcome.
- Tolerate and support failure. Do a second look. Make every failure a learning opportunity. Review what went wrong and talk through how to succeed in the next project.
- Recognize employees often. Don’t forget to celebrate success frequently. Little acknowledgments go a long way toward securing buy-in and building a stronger team. Praise much more often than you offer suggestions for improvement.
- Identify goals with the employees. Be clear about your expectations. See our recent goal-setting article for tips on how to do this.
- Ask what you can do to help. Let your team know they can come to you for help, AND use open-ended questions to help them arrive at their solutions after some brainstorming with you.
Coaching your employees is key to increasing output, engagement, and morale. Your job as a manager is to enable the success of each member. Next week we will provide some examples of effective coaching dialogue.
Jason left his one-on-one feeling encouraged. His supervisor, Ellen, had listened as he described competing deadlines and his interest in becoming a team leader. They talked about the possibility of shifting some of his workload. Ellen also suggested that training might help him prepare for a leadership role. "Let's work on that," she said. Jason thought help was coming. Ellen thought Jason would bring her a plan. Two weeks later, the deadlines were closer. Nothing had been reassigned. Neither had looked into training. During their next one-on-one, Ellen asked how things were going. "I'm still waiting to hear which project you want me to focus on," Jason said. "I thought we agreed that you would work that out." "And the leadership training?" "Did you find a course?" Jason paused. "I thought you were going to recommend one." They had discussed the same topics. They had left with different expectations. Neither intended to let the other down. But they hadn't agreed on who would do what, or when. Turn a Good Conversation into Clear Next Steps Listening matters. So does what happens after you listen. Before you end your next one-on-one, take a few minutes to make sure you and your employee understand what comes next. Talk about priorities. If everything can't be done at once, agree on what comes first. Ask what might get in the way, and what support would help. Make room for professional growth, too. What does the employee want to learn? What responsibility would they like to prepare for? Identify a step you can each take to move that development forward. Then write down your agreements. Keep the notes simple: what needs to happen, who will do it, and by when. Include your own commitments. Putting It Into Practice Ellen and Jason tried again. "The client proposal comes first," Ellen said. "I'll talk with Marcus today about taking over the weekly report. By Friday, I'll let you know whether he can." "I'll find two leadership courses before our next meeting," Jason said. "Then we can talk about which one fits." Both Jason and Ellen knew what to do next. The following week, both reported their findings and they made decisions on how to move forward. Jason’s work became more aligned with Ellen’s departmental goals. Jason felt valued and appreciated. Their weekly one-to-ones became the backbone of their workplace success. Want to Make Your Workplace Conversations More Productive? Join us for the Workplace Conversations Clinic on October 19 . Bring a conversation you want to handle more effectively, and let's work on making the next steps clear. Register Here
Sally appreciated that her supervisor made time for weekly one-on-ones. It made her feel valued. But after 18 months with Emerald Corp, something was missing. She rarely received feedback. Her supervisor didn’t tell her what she was doing especially well—or where she needed to improve. And although the company had promised continuing education when she was hired, no development opportunities had materialized. Sally loved learning. Several next-level positions interested her, but she knew she needed additional knowledge and skills. Meanwhile, two college classmates working in other departments had already been promoted. She was a fast learner. She was getting bored. And she was beginning to wonder whether she had a future at Emerald. So Sally started applying elsewhere. During Monday’s one-on-one, she asked her supervisor whether he would serve as a reference. He was stunned. “You’re doing well,” he said. “There are lots of opportunities for you here.” Sally asked whether he would support her applying for an internal position. “Well, you’re doing fairly well,” he replied, “but there are several things you could be doing better. You’d also need more experience or training before you’d be ready for the next level.” Sally was confused. “What should I be doing better?” Her supervisor mentioned a few areas for improvement. “Why haven’t you told me this before?” Sally asked. “No news is good news,” he replied. “You’re certainly not at risk of losing your job.” “But you’re telling me I’m not ready for a promotion. How am I supposed to improve if I don’t know what you expect?” Her supervisor assumed Sally would figure it out over time. Sally had assumed she was already meeting expectations. Both assumptions were costly. Within days, Sally had two interviews with other companies. One-on-Ones Should Help Employees Succeed Employees shouldn’t have to guess what high performance looks like. One-on-ones are an opportunity to make expectations clear and help employees become more successful. Talk about what they are doing well. Be specific about where improvement is needed. Ask about their challenges, interests, and future goals. Then provide the coaching, training, and support that can help them succeed. Don’t wait until an employee asks for a reference to talk about their future. Ask before you assume. Conversation is where leadership happens™ Want to Make Your Workplace Conversations More Productive? Join us for the Workplace Conversations Clinic on October 19 . Bring a conversation you want to handle more effectively, and let's work on making the next steps clear. Register HERE
